Going to the net pays for Ovechkin, Caps

Going to the net pays for Ovechkin, CapsAlex Ovechkin sees a flaw in Jaroslav Halak's game and a winning strategy for the Caps headling into Game 3 Monday.

ARLINGTON, Va. -- While watching highlights of Game 2 early Sunday, Washington Capitals captain Alex Ovechkin picked up on something interesting that he believes will help the Caps when their series against Montreal resumes Monday night (7 p.m. ET, TSN, RDS).

"I watched the replay when (Eric) Fehr scored the goal and his arm like was shaking when he drank water," Ovechkin said Sunday from Kettler Capitals Iceplex. "So, he's nervous. He knows all the pressure is on him and that's a good sign for us."

Ovechkin spoke with the media toward the end of the Capitals' optional practice. Here are parts of what he had to say:

Confidence-wise, do you now feel like you're back?

"Yeah, probably. I feel comfortable and I feel good. Last game was really important mentally for us, but still we have to forget it and concentrate the next game."

That was the most physical I have seen you since the last suspension. Do you feel like you've put it out of your mind now and are just playing the way you played before?

"Yeah. It's playoffs and you have to play how you can."
You're going into a building (Bell Centre) that you really like. There was the All-Star Game there when you put on a show. How do you feel about going back to Montreal?

"It's playoffs, not party time. It's all about business, all about hockey. We're going there for winning and I don't think about anything else."

Does it matter to you guys who is in net, Theodore or Varlamov? Do you think about that?

"Like I said last night after the game, if one guy doesn't play well different guy steps up. It's all about the results, all about winning right now. If one guy didn't play well different guys step up. That's good."

"No, it's a game. He told me, 'Hey, it's the playoffs and everybody plays as hard as they can.' I think everybody is going to say that."

Did you guys find a weakness in Jaroslav Halak by going on the glove side?

"You just have to make some traffic in front of him and find the rebounds. He gives up lots of rebounds. I watched the replay when Fehr scored the goal and his arm like was shaking when he drank water. So, he's nervous. He knows all the pressure is on him and that's a good sign for us."

Do you feel like you got away with something when you had three whacks at his pads to score your goal?

"You have to have luck and the referee don't blow his whistle. I just hit his pads and scored goals. I don't score that many goals with that style, but it's the playoffs."
How challenging will it be to play at Montreal?

"Three times in playoffs we played against American teams and this is the first time we'll play against a Canadian team, and I know Canada is crazy about hockey. Jose said they talk about it on radio and it's crazy. The atmosphere is going to be unbelievable and the pressure is going to be on them and not on us. The media will be all over them and the fans will be all over them if they make some mistakes. I think it's going to be good for us."

When you say crazy do you mean the pressure of it all?

"Yeah, in Montreal if you go somewhere people know you and people follow you. In Canada, it's a crazy place if you play hockey and you have fun over there. People love you over there. But, right now it's not about fun, it's about business. All these guys know we go there not to see some family and friends, we go there for a big two games and we have to win them."
-- Dan Rosen

The key for the Capitals, Ovechkin said, is to keep the pressure on. Ovechkin said if the Caps play the same way they played in the third period of Game 2 for 60 minutes in Game 3, then they should have no problem at all taking a 2-1 lead in the series.

"If we're going to play our game, finish checks, shoot the puck and go to the net we're going to win," Ovechkin said. "If we're going to play the same way we played in the third period than we're going to be successful."

Ovechkin found success in the third period because he changed what he was doing. Instead of trying to rush the puck into the zone and fire like he loves to do, he went hard to the net.

He scored from the slot 2:56 into the third period by whacking the loose puck through Halak's five-hole. When Nicklas Backstrom scored late in the second period, Ovechkin joined Mike Knuble in front to screen the goalie.

And on Backstrom's game-tying goal 9:47 into the third, Ovechkin got the rebound of his own blocked shot because he never stopped going hard to the net. He finally gathered the puck in the corner and made a perfect pass to Backstrom in the slot for a tap-in.

"I watch Knuble or Brooks Laich, how they go to the net, and sometimes when they're standing there on the power play and I shoot the puck high it's a pretty scary moment," Ovechkin said. "But if you want to get some results you have to pay the price.

"In playoffs, and Bruce (Boudreau) said it, you have to shoot from everywhere," he added. "If it goes in it doesn't matter if it's off rebounds or goes straight in. The first game I didn't make a shot so I just said to myself you have to shoot from everywhere."

That's the good that came out of Saturday's win.

The bad was noticeable, too, and Ovechkin knows the Capitals' power play has to start producing and they need to be much better defensively, especially through the neutral zone.

"I think they're small, they're fast and they have pretty good skills," he said of the Habs. "When we have some mistakes in the neutral zone, they use it. The key is don't make some mistakes in the neutral zone."

The key on the power play is not so easy to figure out.

Washington, which had the best power play in the NHL by a landslide, is 0-for-7 with the man-advantage in this series. They had only four shots on three failed power plays Saturday night.

"Power play in playoffs, if you remember, we always have some problems but somehow, someway we have to find a way to play better and find a way to score goals because it's a very important part of the game for us," Ovechkin said.

He's actually being a bit too harsh in his assessment of the Capitals' power play over the previous two postseasons. Washington was 11-for-52 last season (21.1 percent) and 8-for-35 (22.9 percent) in the series against Philadelphia in 2008.

But history doesn't really matter right now.

"We had two different units (Saturday) and we might have two different units the next game," Boudreau said. "They're quick and they're reacting quick to our passes. They are obviously well-coached and well-schooled on how we bring the puck out and they're adjusting very well to that."

Backstrom said the Canadiens are doing a great job of taking Ovechkin out of the play and that's doing a lot of damage to the Capitals' power play.

"But, I still feel like we have opportunities to score because we have good chances," Backstrom said. "Special teams is so important and we have to be good at it if we're going to win."

He's only 17 but he can see the ice so well and he moves the puck and goes to the open ice all the time, so I just think he's a player that is ready to play in the NHL. I'm really looking forward to coaching someone like this.

— U.S. National Junior Team coach Ron Wilson on Auston Matthews, the projected No. 1 pick of the 2016 NHL Draft